Publications

Australia and Indonesia: current problems, future prospects

Professor Jamie Mackie

Summary

Since the fall of President Suharto in 1998, Australia-Indonesia relations have been quite volatile with the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia being withdrawn briefly in 2006, the first time this has ever happened. Indonesia’s democratisation has brought the two neighbours’ political systems more in line with each other. Yet, this has not led to quieter times. Rather, suspicions in Indonesia over Australia's interests towards the provinces of Papua have deepened along with Australian worries about religious developments in Indonesia.

In his new Lowy Institute Paper, Professor Jamie Mackie, a very experienced Indonesia analyst who has researched the bilateral relationship for over five decades, evaluates the sources of this volatility and ways the two governments can counteract them and the potential problems if things stay as they are.

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China and the world: public opinion and foreign policy

The Lowy Institute has just released its first China Poll, a wide-ranging survey of Chinese public opinion towards a number of important international policy issues. By what do the Chinese people feel threatened? How do they feel about foreign investment from Australia, Canada and the United States? Which country do the Chinese people regard as the best place to be educated and what do they think of Australia - is it a good place to visit, a country with attractive values or is it suspicious of China?

The 2009 Lowy Institute China Poll asked a broad sample of the Chinese population these questions and others. The Poll was partly funded with the generous assistance of the MacArthur Foundation as part of the Lowy Institute’s MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Project.

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The 2009 Lowy Institute Poll

The fifth annual Lowy Institute Poll surveys Australian public opinion on a broad range of foreign policy issues. New questions this year cover the priority given to action on climate change, public attitudes towards relations with the US and China, foreign investment, asylum seekers, how to deal with Iran and perceptions about nuclear threats.

The Poll also repeated a number of questions asked in previous years, revealing important trends in Australian public opinion over the last five years.

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